Past
Chronicles
Dear Friends and Family,
I suppose that you could say that our move is almost
complete. Meaning that we're in our new house, but
that there are crates, trunks and boxes EVERYWHERE.
Our garage is full and overflowing and the driveway
is full too. The new house is much smaller than the
old so we'll be giving many things away to the Pastors
that have lost so much.
The move was essentially uneventful, but I'd like
for you to understand what it takes to move in Africa
and add the challenges of war to the normal complications.
In a nutshell: We crossed the "front" for
the first time on the 9th of November and Barbara experienced
war-torn Bouake for the first time. This was when we
began discussing the necessity of moving. It would
be possible to live there, but not much work can be
done. One week later we drove back across the front
to see if we could find a house in Yamoussoukro. There
were only four to look at and one of them was five
times the price of our house in Bouake, then we found
that the other two were already rented. We decided
to move toward the only one available, calling the
owner that evening, he asked that I send a fax the
next morning because a few others were interested and
that he would hold it for me.
North across the front again to begin packing. We've
lived in our house for ten years and still have stuff
from our kids there. We began secretly negotiating
for trucks since we didn't want anyone to know that
we were leaving ;-) The next weekend it was back across
the line AGAIN to see the owner and give him a deposit.
BTW, we're still driving our little Suzuki jeep since
one of the rebels is driving our good car ;-)) Back
to Bouake to finish packing and get things put together.
Had to go talk to the truck owners three times and
see about getting the pass to leave six times. Went
out and talked to the French commandant and got the
OK to insert our trucks in their convoy Saturday morning.
Loaded all day Friday and as we were pulling out received
our "approval" to move. Went back and picked
up the parrot, turtle and two German Shepherds in the
jeep.
We parked the trucks at our kids old school that is
now a French military base and prepared to spend the
night on Friday night. Our friends prepared the duck
dinner that I mentioned and we had a Friday evening
thanksgiving.
Saturday morning we left with two French trucks in
front of us. We were pulling our trailer and had one
tractor trailer rig and another twenty ton truck followed
by several other French vehicles. The sixty mile trip
took about three hours, but we made it without incident.
Then just to spice things up we found out that there
was a battle east of Bouake the day we left. We're
unloaded, but not unpacked. When we got to Yamoussoukro
I planned to go to the ATM and get the money to pay
the trucks, the ATM's have been down for three days
!!! Therefore Barbara and I are back in Abidjan to
get money to pay the trucks and finish paying the deposit
on our house. All in all the move of 60 miles cost
about $4000. Imagine.
It's almost over and we'll be in a much better position
to take-up the work again. Our losses due to theft
over the last year come to about $10,000 if we get
our car back, but if not then it will be more like
$20,000 - $25,000. Unbelievable!
Thank you for your continued prayer. Our safety and
the ease with which we moved can be directly attributed
to your prayer on our behalf. We appreciate it!!
God Bless,
Tim & Barbara Downs
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